Wire-fence machine.



No. 815,640. v PATENTBDMAR.20,1906.I

e. w. SCHOGK. WIRE FENCE MACHINE.

APPLIOATION'IILED JUNE 26, 19.05. I

2 SHEETS- SHBET l.

PATENTBD MAR. 20, 1906. W. SCHOOK. WIRE, FENCE MACHINE.

APPLIOATI'ON TILED JUNE 26. 1905 zsnnmwsnmr 2 UNITED STATES PATENTorrron.

GEORGE W. SCI-100K, OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA.

' WIRE-FENCE MACHINE. i

Specification of Letters Patent. Ap'olication filed June 26, 1905.Serial No. 267,042.

Patented March 20, 1906-.

' To (ML whom it may concern/:1

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. SoHocK, a citizen of the United States,residing at South Bend, in the county of St. Joseph and State ofIndiana, have invented new and useful Improvements in Wire-FenceMachines, of which the following is a specification.

are in the form of clips which are cut and bent into the required shapereparatory to being placed into a suitable opper, from which they fallby gravity onto a feeding mechanism operated by a swinging deliverydevice,

. point which grasps the clip and carries'it to the intersection of theWires of the fence,

where it is operated u on by suitable dies and cle'nched in place, a las will be more fully described hereinafter, illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, and finally pointedout in the appended claims.

In thedrawings, Figure 1 is a view, partly I in side elevation andpartly in section, of the feeding means, the deliverydevice, and thedie, embodying all the features of my invention and showing in dottedlines two positions of the delivery device with the clip carriedthereby. Fig. 2 is a front elevation looking the clips 3.

in the direction of the arrows in Fig. 1 with the delivery device shownin its lowered posi-.

tion. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the ho per and its feeding means with thelatter s own in dotted lines in one of its ositions. Fig. 4 is va sideelevation of the eliyery device with the clip-applied to thefence-wires. Fig. 5 is a front elevationlooking in the direction of thearrows in Fig. 1 with the delivery device shown in its raised position,and Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the clip.

Making renewed reference to the drawings, wherein like characters ofnotation indicate corresponding parts appearing in the severalillustrations, and references being had thereto, 1 designates a suitableface-board or frame of themachine, and 2 indicates a hopper for This ho.per preferably consists of a casing with a bacl; cured the angular endplate 5, and to the face- -board 4, to which is see,

board 1 and projecting toward the angular plate 5 is another plate 6,all of which form a vertical runway for the clips, the runway be ingslotted longitudinally at the front, so as to permit the end of theclips to project therefrorn,as shown. The clips havlng been previouslyout are bent into the required sha e. One of the clipsis-shown in Fig. 6as consisting of a plate 7, which is provided with two longitudinalcuts, forming a tongue 7 upon each side and a central rojection 7 Thetongues may be bent bac r upon the plate, as shown, and then the plateis provided with a central longitudinal rentrant portion 7 which isadapted to partially envelop the longitudinal wire of the fence, whilethe tongues engage the stay-wire, arranged at right angles to thelongitudinal wires. When these tongues are bent up and clenched aroundthe stay-wires, as will be described hereinafter, the wires are heldagainst displacement.

The means for operating the die andthe means for operating the deliverydevice are not shown in the present drawings, and they form no part ofthe present invention, which consists of that portion of a wire-fencemachine which feeds and delivers the tie to the die. 1

The feeding mechanism for the clipsis mounted beneath the hopper andconsists of v 1 a longitudinally-movable rod 8, supported in spring 10,mounted thereon and which has I one end bearing against a collar 11.This collar has a tangential arm 12, from which extend clip-supporting{fingers 13, which are spaced apart. a sufiicient distance to permit theprojecting end 7 b of the clip to pass therebetween when the fingersare'released from engagement with the plate or side portion of the clip,as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3.

In order that the clips may have a progressive feed, it is necessary tosupport a row of clips in the hopper while the bottom one is being fedto the delivery device, and for this purpose the endwise-movable rod 8is provided with a collar 14, made fast to the rod and having atangential arm 15, from which extends a supporting-finger 16, thatprojects through an opening in the back-board 4 of the hopper and intothe latter in the path of the clips, so that when the bar 8 is shiftedagainst the tension of the spring 10 the fingers 13 are withdrawn frombeneath the bottom clip and the latter is permitted to drop onto thedelivery device. At the same time the finger 16 is projected into thehopper between the tongues of the bottom clips and in the path of theplate portion of the clip immediately above, asshown in dotted lines inFigs. 1 and 3, wherefore the entire row of clips is supported during thedelivery of the bottom clip. WVhen the shaft 8 is released, the spring10 will return the shaft to its normal position and project the fingers18 into the path of the plate of the neXt clip, while the finger 16 willbe retracted from the hopper, and the entire row of clips therein willdrop upon the fingers 13. This feeding mechanism is operated by avibrating or swinging delivery device by providing a lug 17 on thecollar 11 and disposing it within the path of the free end of theswinging-clip deliverer or carrier. This delivery mechanism consists ofa swinging anvil 20, rigidly. mounted upon a rock-shaft 21 and having atits free end a bifurcated jaw or claw 22 for engaging the ex tension 7of the clip when the latter drops from the hopper. This swinging anvilis provided with a transverse slot 23, in which is pivoted an arm 24,having secured. thereto a flat spring 25,. which envelops the pivotedend of the arm and has its free end in engagement with the end of theslot, so as to normally hold the opposite end of the arm projectedforwardly. To the other end of the arm 24 is pivoted a gripping member26, the lower end of which has a socket member 27, in which is mounted acoil-spring 28, which bears against the face of the anvil, and thusnormally holds the free or opposite ends of the gripping member towardthe anvil. From this construction it will be seen that the grippingmember 26 not only has a swing ing movement on its pivot, but also amovement longitudinally of the anvil, so that its free end may benormally held projected in the path of the clip but it is adapted to beretracted or'slid rearwardly when engaged with the wire of the fence.

When the machine is in operation, the upward movement of the swingingdelivery member 20 will imp art an endwise movement to the feeding-bar 8by striking the lug 17 on the collar 11, and thus permit one of theclips 7 to drop down upon said delivery member. Upon its forwardmovement the collar 11 is released and the spring 10 forces the bar 8and supportingfingers l3 forwardly, so as to check the feeding ordescent of the clips, while the claws 22 force the clip into engagementwith the gripping member 26, and the clip in such position is carrieddown, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1. When the delivery member hasreached the limit of its downward movement, the tongues 7 of the cliphave straddled the stay-wire of the fence and the gripping member 26 hasby contact with the wires been forced rearwardly or upwardly. With theparts in these positions a plunger or die 29 is operated by mechanism(not shown) to clench the tongues 7 of the clip around the stay-wire Aof the fence, while the longitudinally-reentrant portion 7 of the clippartially incloses the longitudinal wire B of the fence, the deliverymember 20 serving as an anvil and resisting the pressure of the die, allas shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1. Upon the reverse movement of thedelivery member the gripping member 26 will by virtue of its loosepivoted connection with the delivery member slide rearwardly and clearthe end of the clip, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4, and when freeof all obstacles this gripping member will be again projected forwardlyby the spring 25, so as to bring its free end within the path of a lug30, depending from the bottom of the hopper, said lug serving to arrestthe movement of the gripping member and hold it in released positionuntil the next clip has been fed to the delivery device.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

1. In a wire-fence machine, the combination of a hopper for the wireties, a feeding mechanism for successively releasing the ties from thehopper, and a swinging delivery device for receiving the ties from thehopper and positioning them on the wires.

2. In a wire-fence machine, the combination of a hopper for the wireties, a feeding mechanism for successively releasing the ties from thehopper, and a swinging ('elivering device operating the feedingmechanism to release the ties and posit-ion the ties on the wires.

3. In a wire-fence machine, the combination of a hopper for the wireties, a feeding mechanism for successively releasing the ties from thehopper, and a delivering device op erating the feeding mechanism torelease the ties from the hopper and having meansto grip the tie andposition it upon the wires.

4. In a wire-fence machine, the combination of a feeding mechanism forsuccessively feeding the wire ties, and a delivering device operating torelease the tie from the feeding mechanism and position it upon thewires.

5. In a wire-fence machine, the combination of a feeding mechanism forsuccessively feeding the wire ties, and a swinging delivery memberoperating the feeding mechanism, adapted to receive the wire ties andposition them on the wires, and a gripping-linger carried by saidswinging member and having a slidable and pivotal connection therewith,and a die to clench the tie to the wires, sub stanti ally as specified.

6. In a wire-fence machine, the combination of a feeding mechanism, anda d elivery d evice operating the feeding mechanism to deposit the tieon the delivery device and hav- ITO I ing means for gripping the tie andpositioning it upon wires, and a die for clenching the tie to the wires,while held by the delivery device, whereby the delivering device servesas an anv l-when the die operates upon the tie.

7. A wire-fence machine embodying a hopper for the wire ties, anendwise-movable rod having ti-esupporting fingers carried thereby andarranged in different vertical planes upon opposite sides of the hopper,whereby the ties are successively fed, and a swinging tie delivering andpositioning device operating the'endwise-movable rod to release a tiefrom the hopper, and a die for clenching the tie to the wires.

8. A wire-fence machine embodying a hopper for the wire ties, anendwise-movable rod, means carried by said rod and arranged tosuccessively discharge the ties from the hopper, a spring to hold therod in one position, and a swinging tie-delivering device having itsfree end disposed within the path ofthe endwise-movable 'rod and"arranged to shift the latter to release a tie, and a die for clenchingthe ti e to the wires.- 1

9. A wire-fence machine embodying a hopper for the wire ties, means-forsuccessively feeding the ties, and a swinging delivering member forpositioning the tie upon the wires having a gripping-finger pivotedthereto with its free end normally held ressed. toward the free end ofsaid swinging eliveringmemher, a die for clenching the tie to the wires,said delivering member serving as an anvil for the 'die, and a lugprojecting from the bottom of the hopper within the path of the free endof the gripping-finger, substantially 1 as and for the purpose setforth.

10. In a wire-fence machine, the combination with a feeding mechanismsubstantially as described, of a swinging delivering device having agripping-claw adapted for engagement with the wire tie, agripping-finger, an

and at its other end to the swinging delivering device, a spring securedto said arm to hold the free end of the gripping-finger normallyprojected beyond the free end of the delivering device, and a die forclenching the tie to the wire, the saiddelivering device acting as ananvil for said die during the clenching action, substantially asdescribed.

11. A wire-fence machine embodying a hopper for the wire ties, means forsuccessively feeding, the ties from thehopper comprising ti e-supportingfingers arranged in different vertical planes upon opposite sides of thereceiving the tie from the feeding mechanism hopperand shiftabletransversely thereof,

and positioning it upon wires, comprising a swinging member, and agripping-finger, a

connection between the gripplng-finger and the swinging membercomprising an arm pivoted at opposite ends to the finger and to themember, and a spring operating upon said arm to hold the free end of thegripplngv finger normally projected within the path of the clip,substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two subscribingwitnesses.

GEO. W. SOHOOK.

